Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday he's opposed to a broader federal civil rights investigation into Chicago Police Department tactics in the wake of the fatal shooting of African-American teen Laquan McDonald by a white Chicago police officer, and acknowledged he made "mistakes" during the investigation into the incident.

During a morning interview with Politico Illinois a day after he announced the firing of police Superintendent Garry McCarthy amid widespread protests about the handling of the McDonald case, Emanuel resisted the call by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan for a Justice Department probe into the Police Department's use of deadly force and the adequacy of its review of such cases. Madigan wrote to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Tuesday asking for the probe, saying "trust in the Chicago Police Department is broken."

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has canceled a trip to Paris this week for a conference on climate change, saying it's more important for him to stay in Chicago in the wake of unrest tied to the release of a video showing the fatal shooting of an African-American teen by a white Chicago police officer.

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Emanuel noted the FBI and U.S. attorney's office have an ongoing investigation into the McDonald shooting and referred to the task force he created to look at possible police reforms. Emanuel tried to make the case that starting up another federal investigation would be counterproductive.

"I think an additional layer prior to the completion of this, in my view, would be misguided," he said. "And if you notice, they are doing a thorough job, given that they had the information two weeks after, just immediately after the incident. They are doing a thorough job, and hitting the restart button on a whole new investigation does not get you to the conclusion in an expedited fashion."

The civil rights investigation would be a much broader look at the department as a whole, but Emanuel said the investigation focused on the McDonald killing should take precedent.

"There is an ongoing investigation by the U.S. attorney's office here in the city of Chicago with the FBI. My view is that given the period of time they've had the information, like everybody else, I await their conclusions," he said.

As for the mistakes, Emanuel hinted that perhaps he could have released the McDonald shooting video earlier. Emanuel's administration spent months fighting to keep the tape of McDonald being shot 16 times by Officer Jason Van Dyke from being made public. The mayor has argued he didn't release the recording for fear of interfering with the investigation, though in ordering the footage released, Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama ruled there were no grounds for such a position.

On Wednesday, Emanuel pointed to a policy in Cincinnati that requires video in police-involved shootings to be released unless the prosecutor there specifically decides it should be kept from the public. "I'm sure I made mistakes, and one of the things I made — mistake is a big term — but I'm sure I have," Emanuel said.

"We have this existing tension between the public's desire to know and know now, and the investigation taking more time and the integrity of that investigation. That's a piece of it," he said. "And I suppose, having looked at what Cincinnati does, we could have made that change in a period of time. But would that have answered and addressed some of the public's concerns about the police protecting the police or not letting the public, did it build up suspicion? That is a legitimate question. And then, therefore following the protocols, I could have changed it I suppose in the middle. And that's something we will look at."

The nearly hourlong interview in a room at the Willis Tower also touched on other topics. Emanuel was talking about the need for the Chicago Teachers Union to work with school officials to promote their common interests and avoid a strike when CTU officer Jackson Potter stood up in the audience and began blasting the mayor's education priorities.

"Why are you slashing the school budget and giving it to Bank of America, Mr. Mayor? That's outrageous," Potter said, also criticizing cuts to special education funding as he walked from the room.